visit celebrex.com and ask your doctor about celebrex. for a body in motion. bill: lot of news today. a week after william airey accused of child sexual assault he voluntarily offered his resignation to the moose international board of directors. this story said to have begun in ohio years ago but the legal side of it occurred in north carolina. so that news confirmed through fox now. martha:, so, bill, merry christmas. have a wonderful time with your family. bill: you too. martha: everybody a happy, healthy christmas and wonderful new year. bill: has been a rockin' year. hope for better 2013. "happening now" starts right now. martha: merry christmas, everybody. jenna: this is fox news alert. president obama will nominate senator john kerry

to be secretary of state. we're glad you're with us on this friday. i'm jenna lee, i'm jon scott. kerry is the chairman of the senate foreign relations committee. he was democratic candidate and nominee in two four. -- 2004. jenna: senior foreign affairs correspondent wendell goler is live at the white house for us now. wendell. >> reporter: there were only those two names on the list, senator kerry from massachusetts and u.n. ambassador susan rice. she removed her name after it became clear there would be an incredible fight over the nomination because of the statements she made after the tragedy in benghazi that cost the lives of ambassador chris stevens and three other americans. john kerry, a long-time member of the senate, head of the foreign relations committee, will have no problem winning confirmation of that body. that will reconclude a fight there. that was a fight the president really didn't want

to have this early in what will be his second term. so we expect the nomination to come later today. whether or not the president announces it himself we have yet to hear. back to you. jenna: wendell goler, thank you. jon: let's talk about all this with chris wallace. he is of course the anchor of "fox news sunday". maybe the worst-kept secret in washington. everybody expected it was going to be john kerry. what does he bring to this post, chris? >> well he certainly brings experience. he has been a member of the senate a long time. he is chairman as wendell said of the senate foreign relations committee. he seems to have a good working relationship between president obama and his national security team. in fact obama has used him several times as a personal envoy to deal particularly with problems in pakistan and afghanistan. it got to a point where hamid karzai, the president of afghanistan preferred to deal with john kerry, the personal envoy the president, rather than the u.s. ambassador there. his latest role had been that he played mitt romney

in preparations for the presidential debates. some people said that the president didn't like the fact that he, kerry, was a little long-winded during those debate preps. obviously after the first one, president did pretty well. kerry obviously did pretty well playing romney. he will get the job which he clearly hungered for for some period of time. jon: there doesn't appear to be much in the way of republican opposition. senators like mccain, who expressed some reservations about susan rice have said good things about their fellow senator. >> absolutely. i mean, for good or ill, there is a senate club. he is a member in good standing of the senate club, well-respected and generally speaking unless there is some, you know, huge piece of information out there, certainly no reason to think of it, some controversial stand with john kerry i would think his nomination will sail through. jon: very often a president might pick a senator from a

state where he can expect that senator will be replaced by a, by a, you know, staunch democrat or whichever party the person comes from. what is going to be the situation? what's the, does the governor choose the replacement in massachusetts? >> he does until the special election which i assume would be, well, i'm trying to think now whether in 2014 or whether they have a special election in massachusetts. the laws are different in different states. the thing that is so interesting about it, scott brown, who of course won the special election to replace teddy kennedy when he died and was just defeated by elizabeth warren during the regular election in november would be one of the favorites. run special election for the other seat, not the kennedy seat but the kerry seat. apparently the white house did some due diligence, talked to massachusetts democrats and was told there were a number of democrats, it wouldn't be a walk over for brown he probably goes into it as a favorite. i saw a poll yesterday against a generic unnamed

democrat he had a fairly sizable lead but, you know, the democrats do have a firm control of the senate, even if they were to lose that one seat they would still maintain control and it doesn't, doesn't jeopardize because they weren't close to having a filibuster-proof majority. they think they're competitive in massachusetts and if they lose it is not the end of the world. john kerry were the logical choice. susan rice and he were the only two names mentioned. after the benghazi scandal and controversy too great and rice had to pull herself out it really left kerry as the lone person for that seat. jon: there are questions about benghazi swirl around secretary of state clinton. how much longer is she in the job and will she testify before congress before she leaves that post, do you know? >> that is good question. another good question, wendell said he didn't know for sure, the president would come out, usually the way it is for the senior job in his cabinet and announce it today.

generally speaking, traditionally, when the president is announcing he has somebody to replace an earlier person in that place, that person is there too. incumbent secretary of state. it gets a little delicate for hillary clinton because of course she did not testify yesterday before the senate foreign relations committee because she was suffering the effects of a flu, stomach virus and concussion she suffered. it would be a little funny if she were to appear today at this event. it will be interesting to see what happens. jon: it will be interesting to see what you've got on fox news sunday, chris. you want to give us a peek? >> this story keeps changing. the fiscal cliff by sunday we'll be nine days away from it. we don't know whether the white house will come out. we do they that we have two senate leaders, kent conrad, democrat and republican john barosso. we'll take a different look at the shooting in newtown, more of a look, our morals in our society today and faith and the absence of

that. we'll have pastor rick warren, of course the author of the best-selling book, a purpose driven life. jon: chris wallace, anchor of "fox news sunday". check local listings time it airs on the big fox network in your area. joining us today. >> thanks, jon. jenna: taking you live to a press conference for the national rifle association. you can see there what is going on, someone holding up a banner. the full read on that banner says, nra killing our kids. this is the first news conference the nra held since the mass shooting that we first told you about last friday. wayne laperriere, ceo of nra. he will amid this first statement when the disruption took place. one of the big questions, moving forward into the new year, what will the task force created by president obama come up with, when it comes to the future potentially of gun control in this country. and how will the nra respond? according to some initial reports it seemed that the nra said they were going to

come out with their own proposal and hopefully work in the process. let's go ahead and listen to wayne laperriere. >> by an unknown number of genuine monsters. people that are so deranged, so evil, so possessed by voices and driven by demons, that no sane person can ever possibly comprehend them. they walk among us every single day. and does anybody really belief that the next adam lanza isn't planning his attack on a school? he is already identified at this very moment? how many more copycats are waiting in the wings for their moment of fame? from a national media machine that rewards them with wall-to-wall attention and a sense of identity that they crave. while provoking others to

try to make their mark. a dozen more killers? 100 more? how can we possibly even guess how many? given our nation's refusal to create an active national database of the mentally ill? the fact is this. that wouldn't even begin to address the much larger, more lethal criminal class, killers, robbers, rapists. gang members. who have spread like cancer in every community across our nation. meanwhile, while that happens, federal gun prosecutions have decreases by 40% to the lowest levels in a decade.

so now, due to a decline of willingness to prosecute dangerous criminals, violent crime is increasing again for the first time in 19 years. add another hurricane, terrorist attack, or some other natural or manmade disaster, and you've got a recipe for a national nightmare of violence and victimization. and here's another dirty little truth that the media try their best to conceal. their exists in this country, sadly, a callous, corrupt, and corrupting shadow industry that sells and stows violence against its own people. through vicious, violent, videogames, with names like bullet storm, "grand theft

auto", "mortal combat", and "splatter house." and here's one. it is called "kindergarten killers." it's been online for 10 years. how come my research staff can find it and all of yours couldn't or didn't want anyone to know you had found it? add another hurricane, add another natural disaster, i mean, we have blood-soaked films out there like ""american psycho"", ""natural born killers", aired like propaganda loops and every single day.

a thousand music videos, you all know this, portray life as a joke and portray murder as a way of life. and then they all have the nerve to call it entertainment. but is that what it really is? isn't fantasizing about killing people as a way to get your kicks really the filthyest form of pour nothing if i. -- are pornography. in a race to the bottom, media con kblom rates race to the offend every standard of civilized society bringing evening more toxic mix of reckless behave wror -- behavior and criminal cruelty right into our homes, every minute, every day, every hour of every single year. a child growing up in america today, witnesses

16,000 murders and 200,000 acts of violence by the time he or she reaches the ripe old age of 18. and throughout it all too many in the national media, their corporate owners, and their stockholders act as silent enablers, if not complicit coconspirators. rather than face their own moral failing, the media demonized gun owners. >> reckless behavior coming from the nra. the nra has blood on its hands. the nra has blood on its hands. shame on the nra. ban assault weapons now!. ban assault weapons now!.

nra -- ban assault weapons now. >> mr. laperriere what is reaction to the protests? what is your react shun to that? >> rather than face, rather than face their own moral failing, the media demonized lawful gun owners, amplify their cries for more laws and fill the national media with misinformation and dishonest thinking. that only delay meaningful action and all but guaranty but the next atrocity is only a news cycle away. the media calls semiautomatic firearms, machine guns. they claim these civilian semiautomatic firearms are used by the military. they tell us that the .223 round is one of the most powerful rifle calibers when all of these claims are factually untrue.

they don't know what they're talking about. worse, they perpetuate the dangerous notion that one more gun ban or one more law imposed on peaceable, lawful people will protect us. where 20,000 other laws have failed. as brave and heroic and as self-sacrificing as those teachers were in those classrooms, and as prompt and professional and well-trained as those police were when they responded, they were unable, through no fault of their own, unable to stop it. as parents, we do everything we can to keep our children safe. it's now time for us to assume responsibility for our schools. the only way, the only way to stop a monster from

killing our kids is to be personally involved and invested in a plan of absolute protection. the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun, is a good guy with a gun. would you rather have your 911 call bring a good guy with a gun, from a mile away, or from a minute away? now, i can imagine the head liens, the shocking headlines you will print tomorrow. more guns you will claim are the nra's answer to everything. your implication will be, that guns are evil, and have no place in society much less in our schools.

but since when did the gun automatically become a bad word? a gun in the hands of a secret service agent protecting our president isn't a bad word. a gun in the hands of a soldier protecting the united states of america isn't a bad word. and when you hear your glass breaking at 3:00 a.m. and you call 911, you won't be able to pray hard enough for a gun in the hands of a good guy to get there fast enough to protect you. so, why is the idea of a gun good when it is used to protect the president of our country or our police but bad when it's used to protect our children in our schools?

there are kids, they're our responsiblety and it is not just our duty to protect them, it is our right to protect them. you know, five years ago, after the virginia tech tragedy, when i said we should put armed security in every school, the media called me crazy. but what if, what if, when adam lanza started shooting his way into sandy hook elementary school last friday he had been confronted by qualified, armed security? will you at least admit it's possible that 26 little kids,

that 26 innocent lives might have been spared that day? is it so abhorrent to you that you would rather continue to risk the alternative? is the press and the political class here in washington, d.c. so consumed by fear and hatred of the nra and american gun owners, that you're willing to accept a world where real resistance to evil monsters is a lone, unarmed, school principal, left to surrender her life, her life, to shield those children in her care? no one, no one, regardless of personal political prejudice has the right to impose that sacrifice.

ladies and gentlemen, there's no national one size fits all solution to protect being our children but do know this president zeroed school emergency planning grants in last year's budget and scrapped secure our schools policing grants in next year's budget. with all the foreign aid the united states does, with all the money in the federal budget, can't we afford to put a police officer in every single school? even if they did that politicians have no business and no authority denying us, the right, the ability and the moral imperative to protect ourselves and our loved ones from harm. now the national rifle association knows there are

millions of qualified, active and retired police. active reserve and retired military. security professionals, certified firefighters, security professionals, rescue personnel and extraordinary core of patriotic trained, qualified citizens to join with local school officials and police in devising a protection plan for every single school. we could deploy them to protect our kids now. we can immediately make america's school safer, relying on the brave men and women in america's police forces. the budgets, and you all know this, everyone in the country knows this, of our local police departments are strained and the resources are severely limited but their dedication and courage

is second to none and they can be deployed right now. i call on congress today to act immediately to appropriate whatever is necessary to put armed police officers in every, single school in this nation. and to do it now, to make sure that blanket safety is in place when our kids return to school in january. before congress reconvenes, before we engage in any lengthy debate over legislation, regulation or anything else, as soon as our kids return to school after the holiday break, we need to have every single school in america immediately deploy a protect program proven to work, and by that, i mean armed security. right now today every school in the united states should

plan meetings with parents, school administrators, teachers, local authorities and draw up upon every resource that is out there and available to erect a cordon of protection around our kids right now. every school is going to have a different solution based on its own situation. every school in america needs to immediately identify, dedicate, and deploy the resources necessary to put these security forces in place though right now. and the national rifle association, as america's preeminent trainer of law enforcement and security personnel for the past 50 years, we have 11,000 police training instructors in the nra, is ready, willing, and uniquely qualified to help. our training programs are the most advanced in the world. that expertise must be

brought to bear to protect our schools and our children now. we did it for our nation's defense industries and military installations during world war ii. we did it for very young kids with our eddie eagle child safety program that is throughout --. jenna: wayne laperriere, the ceo of the nra, talking about gun control and a whole host of different issues. the big headline from this so far is his comment, the only thing that stop as bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. he went on to propose to congress that we all have armed police officers in schools across this country before kids return from the holiday break. he went through a long list of reasons, he almost provided as things, angles, that we must discuss when gun violence or when violence in a mass shooting erupts like the one we saw in newtown, connecticut. among he talked about a

national database for the mentally ill. he talked about not prosecuting criminals enough. he criticized the media for coverage of mass shootings. he also went on to take on video games as well as the movie industry. but again, getting back to his main point, the only way to protect our kids he says is absolute protection. is not only one with this point of view. we know there are others who will also join this debate over the future of gun control in the country. the president put out a youtube video t that talks about his position on gun control and the way forward. so we'll continue this conversation. if you like to watch the rest of wayne laperriere's comments you can do so at foxnews.com. jon: and a fox news alert. there will be a nominee for secretary of state, a familiar name to most of you, former presidential candidate and now massachusetts senator john kerry. he is the chairman of the senate foreign relations committee. let's talk about it with a member of that committee, senator john any isakson, a

georgia republican. he was part of the hearing yesterday on the benghazi attacks. we'll get to that in a moment. first, senator, your reaction to your fellow senator, soon to come before your committee to be nominee of secretary of state? >> john kerry is very qualified. i had the occasion to work with him on the foreign relations committee for four years. he has been very active and engaged in international diplomacy. in particular the comprehensive peace agreement in sudan successfully concluded last year. i think he would be a good nominee for the president. jon: the senate is said to be a club, members are polite to one another? do you see any impeding his way to nomination. >> we have our approval hearings and at vice and consent in the senate. i'm sure there will be questions and analysis of his career but i think he will be confirmed. jon: would you, i presume that is going to happen fairly quickly? do you know a timetable on all of this? >> that is an important question. i think we need closure on

the benghazi issue and he is in particularly interesting position as chairman of the committee while we're holding hearings on benghazi. i think it vest important for his sake and the country's sake we have closure what happened on benghazi and put that to bed and have nomination come forward ir, where does that stand now? the independent review board put out a fairly scathing report this week. my understanding your committee hoped to hear testimony from the secretary of state but she has not been available to this point? >> we hope she recovers quickly from the concussion. i understand she wants to testify in january. i think, i hope it is early january because the last questions to really be answered to close this investigation need to come from the secretary of state. jon: does she need to testify while she is still in office in your view? >> i think she would still be in office until the appointment of secretary, of john kerry as secretary of state is confirmed. so i think there is plenty of time for her to testify. jon: right. i just wanted to get your

take whether or not testifying as a civilian versus testifying while actively on duty as secretary of state is important? >> i think it would be best as active secretary of state for her to testify during that rather than a past secretary of state. jon: what is the biggest question that comes to your mind about what happened in the benghazi attack that led to the loss of our ambassador and those three other american heroes? >> you know when you read the accountability review board report it calls a culture of pushback within the state department in terms of requests for more security and the fact that the action never seemed to travel up to the 7th floor which is where secretary clinton's office is. it is important to find out if that culture of pushback exists we need to find out what we can do to do away with it. streamline requests for more security and respond to our diplomats in harm's way wherever they are in the world. jon: as you stand here today you seem fairly confident these two big items, the looking for answers to the benghazi report, or the

attack as well as the confirmation hearings for senator kennedy, i'm sorry, senator kerry, forgive me are you believe those two things can be handled fairly quickly? >> i think they can. it will really depending on the timing of secretary clinton's willness to come testify before the committee. jon: senator johnny isakson, republican from georgia. thanks for being on. >> thank you, jon and merry christmas. jenna: we'll show you what is happening with the dow. when we look at markets before the christmas holiday always important to keep in mind they could be volatile. light volume. a lot of folks left for the holidays. sometimes we see more wild swings than normal. this should be noted. the dow is down 140 points. a lot of this hinges on apparently the fiscal cliff negotiations. we'll get in depth on that with steve moore ahead. all these politics play out in washington, d.c. what about your money? we'll have that next on "happening now." you know that little 50-pound thingy at the doctor's office when they weigh you,

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jenna: there is breaking news. want to bring you back to the markets now. as they failed attempt at avoiding fiscal cliff sent stocks down. we're right around near the lows of session for the dow jones industrial average. there is a quick look at that we'll keep an eye on the markets. very volatile this time of year. significant that we're at this point now. also breaking this morning, house speaker john boehner is wrapping up remarks a short time ago responding to last night's failed pitch to get a vote on his so-called plan b that was aimed at avoiding the fiscal cliff as one option. today speaker boehner the failure was less about the plan itself but about the partisan divide growing in washington and beyond. he says that divide is preventing d.c. from getting anything done. >> we see a situation where, where because of the political divide in the country, because of the divide here in washington, trying to bridge these differences has been difficult. jenna: steve moore, senior economics writer at

"wall street journal." so, steve, politics is one thing. let's talk about the economy first and foremost here. what does this mean right now, not having an agreement? what kind of impact may it have on our economy? >> you know, it's amazing, jenna, about this story you and i been talking about this what, five weeks about the fiscal cliff. jenna: feels like forever, steve, by the way. >> it does. what this means, what happened yesterday, jenna it means we're no closer today to a deal than we were five weeks ago. as remarkable as that may seem. the republicans made one last-ditch effort yesterday. john boehner did, to try to get something through the house. when i talk to house conservatives what they said, look, we're not going to vote for any tax increase until the president starts putting serious spending reforms on the table. what all of this means, jenna in terms of markets is, they're very jittery right now. they're very concerned and i am, for the first time in five weeks, jenna, i'm concerned we may actually be over that cliff.

jenna: steve, let me stop you there. we see the dow down 150 points now. >> yee. >> what does scenario looking look going off the fiscal cliff for a short time and long period of time. what are the scenarios. >> talk about what happens if we don't get a settlement on tax issue january 1st. means starting january 1st, january 2nd, 100 million americans will start paying much higher taxes on payroll, more money withheld on their income taxes. the average american worker with an income, say, 40 to $75,000 a year, is going to pay $2500 more per year in taxes. it is a big hit, jenna, a big hit to the u.s. economy if we don't get this settled sometime very soon. jenna: what about the conversations being had right now about our fiscal health, steve? we talk a lot about taxes. a lot about spending cuts. where is the focus on growth and building a bigger, better america? where is that conversation?

>> well that's a great question. that is one of the frustrations i have had with these discussions. if we want to get the fiscal health in better order as you just said we have to get the economic growth going. we have to get more americans working. all of this talk about raising tax rates i believe puts america at a less competitive situation. although i do think, now is a good time to be, getting serious about cutting spending. remember, jenna. this is kind of a complicated story because when we use the term fiscal cliff there are really two cliffs we're talking about. one is on the tax side of the equation which is what we've been talking about. the other is the automatic spending cuts of domestic programs and military programs that would also begin on january 2nd. and right now, when i talk to the republicans on capitol hill, they are more resigned than ever we are going to do some of those automatic spending cuts because they believe it is only way we can get reductions in spending starting in 2013. jenna: and again, all of this is sort of unknown. it depends on hypotheticals,

right? >> that's right. jenna: mark zandi, well-known economist, as you know, steve, was on our program yesterday. what does 2013 really look like to you? he said, you know, not too bad. he had faith we'll get a deal with fiscal cliff. i'm curious our thoughts on the year ahead, steve? >> so hard to predict. think about this, jenna. we are eight, nine, 10 days away from the new year. think about this, no investor in america, no business, no worker, knows what the tax system is going to be. that is very unsettling. it adds all this kind of uncertainty to the economy. and just a rotten way to run a country. and it's a real black eye for congress and the president. i think if we get this beyond us, if we don't have a major tax increase and get serious about cutting spending, look, i think 2013 could be a positive year for the economy with some really decent growth which we haven't had for four years. but you know what? congress left. they're gone, jenna. they're not coming back until after christmas now. that is amazing.

jenna: well then, and will they see the light over the next few days? that will be one of the big questions, steve. what that light is, is also another big question. is this a situation where getting to the politics just briefly now, a pox on both their houses? is everybody a loser in this? >> ah, look, both parties are a loser. i think the fact that they can't come to some agreement. and look, i don't want to see any taxes rise. you know that. i think they're terrible for the economy. but you may recall, was it a week or two ago i predicted you and i may be talking about this late on december 31st. i think this is coming right down to the wire and i'll make a prediction to you. i do think december 31st is the day they finally come to an agreement on this, almost literally in the 11th hour. jenna: they can have some champagne i guess for that. merry christmas, steve. that is the term. >> merry christmas to you. take care. jenna: bye. jon: about two hours from now we're going to be taking you live to the roosevelt room in the white house of

the president obama is going to be stepping to the microphones. we expect he will officially nominate massachusetts senator john kerry to become secretary of state. we just got the word, the official announcement to come one 30 p.m. eastern time. a little less than two hours from now. john kerry to be the nominee as secretary of state replacing hillary clinton. we'll have that for you live. ♪ if loving you is wrong ♪ i don't wanna be right [ record scratch ] what?! it's not bad for you. it just tastes that way. [ female announcer ] honey nut cheerios cereal -- heart-healthy, whole grain oats. you can't go wrong loving it.

jenna: we're getting new information on the death of four americans in libya on september 11th. while a scathing government report has sparked some new debates which agency or agencies were responsible for keeping those americans safe some experts say the question that really matters going forward is, who orchestrated these attacks? >> what happened in benghazi on september 11th was clearly a terrorist attack. what was not clear that day and was who exactly was

involved, which terrorists were responsible, what their motives were, how exactly this terrorist attack came about. whether it was planned well in advance or more a target of opportunity. jenna: thomas joscelyn, senior fellow at foundation for defense of democracies. just wrote a piece in "weekly standard" about all that. josh rogan, "foreign policy" magazine a good read on a daily basis. welcome to you both. tom, let me start with you. four americans were murdered, do we know, are we any closer to knowing who did it? >> we haven't gotten the story from the u.s. government. even the report that came out from the accountability review board doesn't really specify who did it. what i are a lot of leads and a lot of those leads actually lead back to al qaeda-affiliated parties. what is interesting when you put the picture together every road i look at leads back to al qaeda one way or another? jenna: why does that matter?. >> it goes to who our

enemies are and how they're operating and al qaeda new threat manifesting itself and mutating given the situation on ground with the arab spring. jenna: that is the bigger question. how do we keep our country and our citizens safe. interesting, john, the today is anniversary of lockerbie bombing t brings up questions who the enemy is and how are we safer or less safe than years ago. josh, what do you think is the real implication of any of this right now politically? we understand we're going to get a new secretary of state nomination today. but what is the impact? >> sure. so while the state department report only covered really embassy security, what the state department did or didn't do before or during the attacks it didn't tackle i think is the much larger problem the u.s. government has no real policy to deal with the growing proliferation and hardening of islamic extremist groups throughout north africa all along that coast. we have ad hoc strategies to deal with al qaeda and its affiliates in pakistan,

afghanistan, yemen. what about libya, what about egypt, what about tunisia? we need a whole government approach. once the terrorist attack gets to the compound walls it is already too late and already a failure. jenna: we would like to see the next step. if i can stand by we have breaking news. we'll get back to you in a moment. jon: president obama making remarks at funeral for former late hawaii senator daniel inouye. >> he would remain my senator until i left hawaii for college. now even though, even though my mother and grandparents took great pride that they had voted for him, i confessed that i wasn't paying much attention to the united states senate at the age of 4 or 5 or 6. it wasn't until i was 11 years old that i recall even learning what a u.s. senator

was or, it registering at least t was during my summer vacation with my family. my first trip to what shows of us in hawaii call the mainland. so we flew over the ocean and with my mother and my grandmother and my sister who at the time was two, we traveled around the country. it's a big trip. we went to seattle and we went to disneyland, which was most important. we traveled to kansas where my grandmother's family was from and went to chicago and went to yellowstone. and we took greyhound buses most of the time and we rented cars and we would stay at local motels or howard johnson's. and if there was a pool at

one of these motels, even if it was just tiny, i would be very excited and the ice machine was exciting and the vending machine. i was really excited about that. but this is, at a time when you didn't have 600 stations and 24 hours worth of cartoons and so at night if the tv was on, it was what your parents decided to watch and my mother that summer would turn on the tv every night during this vacation and watch the watergate hearings. and i can't say that i understood everything that was being discussed but i knew the issues were important. i knew they spoke to some basic way about who we were and who we might be as americans.

so slowly, during the course of this trip, which lasted about a month, some of this seeped into my head and the person who fascinated me most was this man of japanese descent, with one arm, speaking in this courtly baritone, full of dignity and grace. and maybe he captivated my attention because my mom explained that this was our senator and that he was upholding what our government was all about. maybe it was a boyhood fascination with the story of how he lost his arm in a war. but i think it was more than that. here i was a young boy with

a white mom, a black father, raised in indonesia and hawaii and i was beginning to sense how fitting into the world might not be as simple as it might seem. and so to see this man, this senator, this powerful, accomplished person, who was not a central casting when it what you think a senator might look like at the time. and the way he commanded the respect of an entire nation, i think it hinted to me what might be possible in my own life. this was a man who, as a teenager, stepped up to serve his country even after his fellow japanese-americans were declared enemy aliens.

a man who beliefed in america even when its government didn't necessarily believe in him. that meant something to me. it gave me a pow powerful sense, one that i couldn't put into words, a powerful sense of hope. and as i watched those hearings listening to danny ask those piercing questions night after night i learned something else. i learned how our democracy was supposed to work. our government of and by and for the people. that we had a system of government where nobody's above the law. where we have an obligation to hold each other accountable from the average citizen to the most powerful of leaders. because these things that we

stand for, these ideals that we hold dear, are bigger than any one person or party, or politician. and somehow nebraska communicated that more effectively than dan inouye. you got a sense as joe mentioned of fundamental integrity. that he was a proud democrat but most importantly he was a proud american. and were it not for those two insights planted in my head at the age of 11, in between disneyland and a trip to yellowstone. i might never have considered a coup rear in public service. i might not be standing here

today. i think it is fair to say that danni inouye was perhaps my earliest political inspiration. then for me to have the privilege of serving with him, to be elected to the united states senate and arrive and one of my first visits is to go to his office and for him to greet me as a colleague, and treat me with the same respect that he treated everybody he met. and sit me down and give me advice how the senate worked and regail me with some stories about wartime and his recovery.

stories full of humor. never bitterness. never boastfulness. just matter of fact. some of them i must admit a little off color. i couldn't probably repeat them in the cathedral. that is a side of danny that, anyhow. danny once told his son that his service to this country had been for the children. for all the sons and daughters who deserved to grow up in a nation that never questioned their patriotism. this is my country, he said. many of us have fought hard for the right to say that. and obviously rick shinseki described what it meant for

japanese-americans. but my point is when he referred to our sons and daughters he wasn't just talking about japanese americans. he was talking about all of us. he was talking about those who serve today who might have been excluded in the past. he is talking about me. that's who danny was. for him freedom and dignity were not abstractions. they were values that he had bled for. ideas he had sacrificed for. rights he understood as only someone can who has had them threatened. had them taken away. the valor that earned him our nation's highest military decoration.

a story so incredible that when you actually read the accounts, you think, this you couldn't make this up. it's like out of an action movie. that valor was so rooted in a deep and abiding love of this country and he believed as we say in hawaii that we're a single ohana. that we're one family. and he devoted his life to making that family strong. and after experiencing the horror of war himself, danny also felt a profound connection to those who followed. it wasn't unusual for him to take time out of his busy schedule to sit down with a veteran or a fellow amputee, trading stories, telling jokes. two heroes generations apart, sharing an unspoken bond that was forged in battle and tempered in peace.

in no small measure because of danny's service our military is and will always remain the best in the world. and we recognize our sacred obligation to give our veterans the care they deserve. of course danny didn't always take credit for the difference he made. ever humble, one of the only landmarks that bear his name is a marine corps mess hall in hawaii. when someone asked him how he wanted to be remembered, danny said, i represented the people of hawaii and this nation honestly and to the best of my ability. i think i did okay. danny, you were more than okay. you were extraordinary. it's been mentioned that danny ended his convention speech in chicago in 1968

with the word, aloha. to some of you who visit us it may have meant hello he said but to others it may have meant good-bye. those of us who have been privileged to live in hawaii understand aloha means, i love you. and as someone who has been privileged to live in hawaii i know that he embodied the very best of that spirit. the very best of aloha. it's fitting it was the last word danny spoke on this earth. he may have been saying good-bye to us. maybe he was saying hello to someone waiting on the other side but it was a final expression, most of all, of his love for the family and friends that he cared so much about.

for the men and women he was honored to serve with. for the country that held such a special place in his heart. and so we remember a man who inspired all of us with his courage and moved us with his compassion that inspired us with his integrity, and who taught so many of us, including a young boy growing up in hawaii that america has a place for everyone. may god bless daniel inouye and may god grant us more souls like his. jon: president obama there, offering a eulogy at the funeral services for senator daniel inouye, the long-time senator from hawaii. he died as president pro-tem of the senate.

a war hero, a recipient of the medal of honor. a man who fought in world war ii. gave up his arm in service to his country. he is to be buried in hawaii on sunday. there is a significant congressional delegation that will be flying there on saturday for the services sunday morning and then flying back just before christmas. jenna: we're going to move on to some other news. fox news confirmed that the chief executive officer of moose international, that is a massive nationwide fraternal group, is resigning amid claims he sexually assaulted a child. this is a fox news exclusive. details are just coming in. john roberts has been on the story since the beginning. john? >> reporter: good afternoon, to you, jenna. you remember about a week ago we talked to you about a lawsuit filed by a share lot, north carolina area psychiatrist, dr. jason peck, claiming that william b airy, the director-general, at least was until yesterday,

director-general and ceo of the giant fraternal organization, moose international. that he had sexually assaulted him when peck was a 12-year-old boy living in columbus, ohio. that was back in 1980. at the time we reported this last week, airey was on his 50th wedding anniversary cruise with his wife. he since returned to the chicago area, aurora, where moose headquarters are. the board of directors met yesterday and it was after that board of directors meeting that mr. airey voluntarily tendered his resignation. peck told us in exclusive interview when he was a child living in columbus he was a neighbor across the street. airey bee hended him and group of other boys and would frequently take them over to the moose lodge, let them play pool and watch television and give them soft drinks and would on occasion take them on overnight trips. one of the overnight trips back in 1980 to new orleans he alleges ariey

subsequent trip in ohio that he alleges they engaged in a full-on sexual assault. the lawsuit, a civil not criminal lawsuit, that was filed in franklin county, ohio, last thursday also alleges on two occasions in 1996 and 2007arie was investigated by the executive board of moose international for other instances of inappropriate sexual conduct with minors. i have in my happened right now what is reported to be the minutes of a 2007 meeting in which those allegations were discussed. i am working now to try to confirm the authenticity of these minutes, and if we do that, we'll get back to you. but the very latest, jenna, the head, the director general and ceo of the gigantic moose fraternal organization which has counted among its membership presidents teddy roosevelt, franklin road svelte, currently senator joe manchin, evan bayh,

larry bird of the boston celtics. this is a huge organization, this could be, indeed, a very, very big story. we should point out that dr. jason peck was influenced to come forward with these allegations 32 years later because of the jerry sandusky case. when he saw that, he thought i need to come forward and tell my story. there is a statute of limitations in ohio, it's 12 years after the age of majority which meant that it would have expired about 13 years ago for dr. peck. but because arie left the state of ohio, that statute according to peck's attorneys tolls which means, basically, the clock stops running. so they do believe they have the valid case here, jenna. jenna: john roberts with that exclusive report. john, thank you. jon: and this fox news alert, if you haven't heard about 90 minutes from now we expect president obama to step forward in the roosevelt room alongside senator john kerry, democrat of massachusetts, and announce officially that senator kerry is

to be his nominee for secretary of state to replace the outgoing secretary hillary clinton. john kerry, the chairman of the senate foreign relations committee, will then take off his senator's hat and sit down in front of his fellow committee members for the first round of hearings to be confirmed as secretary of state. they will hold hearings, and then there'll be a full senate vote. no one expects that it will be a difficult course for the senator. he is well liked, well regarded in the senate. he was the number one choice after susan rice withdrew her name from nomination. john kerry to be officially nominated as secretary of state about 90 minutes from now. ♪ jenna: well, we are not heading into the weekend quietly. is that right, jon? jon: it is not exactly a slow weekend before christmas. jenna: well, we are so glad that your with us as we continue to cover some of these new doubts that the country can really

avoid the fiscal cliff. this after house republicans call off a vote to avoid tax hikes and spending cuts leaving budget talks in disarray just ten days before the kidline. welcome -- deadline. welcome, i'm jenna lee. jon: i'm jon scott, taking a live look at the dow investors are not happy today. it's down 63 points -- 163 points, trading very slow as well. wall street is reacting after house speaker john boehner was forced to scrap the vote on his plan b. clearly, he did not have enough support from within his own party to secure passage. the house speaker, speaking a short time ago, saying it's not the outcome he had hoped for. >> i don't want taxes to go up, republicans don't want taxes to go up. but we only run the house. democrats continue to run washington. what the president has proposed so far simply won't do anything to solve our spending problem. jon: president obama vows to press ahead on a solution before

the january 1st deadline. the white house releasing a statement saying the president will work with congress to get this done, and we are hopeful that we will be able to find a bipartisan solution quickly that protects the middle class and our economy. chief congressional correspondent mike emanuel live on capitol hill for us now. so where do discussions go now, mike, and what happened to plan b? [laughter] >> reporter: well, jon, good afternoon to you. all indications are that the focus shifts back to the talks between president obama and speaker john boehner to try to hammer out a deal. one would expect there may be a phone call or a meeting at some point. i've talked to aides on both sides of pennsylvania avenue, and they don't have anything to announce at this point, but you would expect that the two would get back on the phone or meet at some point. as for what went wrong, well, here's the speaker. >> there was a perception created that that vote last night was going to increase taxes. now, i disagree with that, with

that characterization of the bill, but that impression was out there. now, we had a number of our members who just really didn't want to be perceived as having raised taxes. >> reporter: and the speaker, of course, also wanted to get the united states senate involved. i've been talking to a lot of senators here up on capitol hill, and they've basically been observers in this whole process. so the speaker is calling on harry reid, the senate majority leader, to get engaged in the process and try to be a helpful person in terms of getting a deal. jon? jon: yeah. the ball seems to be in the senate court, that according to the speaker. he sounded like he was in a pretty good mood. is his job really in jeopardy like some people are saying? >> reporter: well, i've talked to a lot of republican members today, and they say the speaker still enjoys broad support from the rank and file of the republican membership. there are 40 or 50 depending on the vote who don't agree with this idea of compromise of

trying to find a deal with the democrats, so they say he still has a lot of support. i will note today it was an important visual to see him walking with eric cantor, the majority leader. last year when the speaker had to swallow a bad deal, it was viewed as a bad deal for republicans, he came out to a press conference by himself, and that seemed to be kind of the lonely man standing at the podium. today he was with the republican leadership, so at this point at least all indications are his speakership is solid. we'll see moving forward, jon. jon: and we'll see whether the president or anybody in the senate steps forward with a deal that, well, both houses of congress can accept. >> reporter: there you go. jon: mike emanuel there at the capitol building, thank you. jenna: well, at this time last week we were just learning of the death and horror of that shooting rampage at the sandy hook elementary school in newtown, connecticut. the national rifle association has been silent on the issue of gun control.

that changed today. the nra holding a news conference for the first time since the massacre in connecticut. james rosen is live in washington with more on this. james? >> reporter: jenna, this a remarkable moment to watch. the head of the nation's largest gun rights organization at once responding specifically to the massacre at sandy hook elementary school in newtown, connecticut, putting forward specific if not altogether surprising policy descriptions for the future and delivering both a sering indictment of hollywood, the news media, the gaming culture and corporate america while at the same time offering an impassioned defense of the gun culture and the historic role of the gun as he sees it in securing an advancing american history. wayne louisiana by year called on congress to act immediately to appropriate whatever funds are necessary to put armed police officers in every single school in america and to do so before classes resume in january. he assailed corporate conglomerates with entertainment

divisions for, quote, co-conspiring to sell violence and death to children in games like slatterhouse and kindergarten killers and in films like american psycho and natural born killers. >> if we truly cherish our kids more than our money, more than our celebrityies, more than our sports stadiums, we must give them the greatest level of protection possible. and that security is only available with properly-trained, armed good guys. >> reporter: protesters disrupted la pierre's speech with banners that said, "the nra is killing our kids." la pierre also used the opportunity to develop

multifaceted school protection plans that each school can tailor and tweak to its own needs improving plans for overall security, design savvy, and student and teacher training. the point was if we arm the secret service and capitol police to protect our president and lawmakers as well as safety officers at other places, why not our kids in our schools? so the next shoe has dropped in the gun control debate. jenna? jenna: james, thank you. >> reporter: thank you. jon: now a fox news weather alert as the blizzard moving across the midwest heads east creating a travel nightmare for millions of americans just before christmas. whiteout conditions forcing police in missouri to close parts of interstate 29 for several hours after a string of crashes on that road. one of the worst crashes was near clarion, iowa, where three people died in a pile-up involving dozens of cars. jenna: got to be careful on those roads right now.

the blizzard causing flight delays. so far the airlines have canceled more than 1400 flights. again, so far. we'll see, won't we? chicago's o'hare, one of the nation's busiest airports, getting hit particularly hard many this blizzard situation. now we're getting word offing delays -- lengthening delays as cities like new york and philadelphia get hit. jon: the storm system also packing ferocious winds, winds that knocked down trees and tore down par lines -- power lines. take a look at the scene in green county, tennessee, where 1500 homes lost fire. more than 130,000 customers across the region. jenna: setting you up for some hot chocolate and a good fire. jon: that sounds good to me. jenna: good news for some kids out there, it's the perfect opportunity to break out the sled or build a snowman. the blizzard also forcing schools across the midwest to

take snow days. and by the way, first day of winter. jon: but the world didn't end last night. jenna: can you knock on wood just because anything can happen at any moment, as we know. jon: that's right. rick reichmuth is live in the fox news extreme weather center. >> reporter: hey, guys, it's weakening a bit, and it's moving offshore, basically. so the worst of the storm is done, but take a look at some of these totals. verona, wisconsin, 20 inches of snow. it's good news, the farmers need this moisture. we've had the drought that we've been talking about for the last year. this is a big help, and it's the first real significant snow they've seen in a very long time. unfortunately, it comes at the holidays with people traveling, but in the long run it's certainly good news. rain across parts of new england, pretty heavy at times, good downpours, but behind it much colder air, and that wind's going to go across the lake, so we're going to be dealing with

lake effect snow all weekend long. because of that, we still have our watches and warnings in effect, winter storm warnings offshore of lake erie, part of the appalachias in west virginia as well. the other thing is out across the west coast now, a series of storms lining up again like we saw a couple weeks ago, all of these targeting this northern california area. so, jenna, your home of san francisco, unfortunately, seeing a lot more rain, and areas of northern california, maybe up to 10 inches of rain over the next five days, that will transfer to about 6 feet of snow in the mountains where i'm going to spend my first week in january. jon: had to rub it in. >> reporter: yeah. jon: rick reichmuth, keep the snow coming at least, you know, for the mountains. jenna: jon gets a little green with envy. jon: yeah. jenna: soon enough, jon, you'll

be out there, that's for sure. well, we have some breaking developments of the marine jailed in mexico. we know a lot of you have been paying attention to this story. after months his family says they have a reason to be hopeful. the latest in a live report ahead. plus, some new developments in a manhunt we've been telling you about in chicago. the bed sheet bandits, if you will. two inmates breaking out of a federal jail, scaling down nearly 20 stories using bed sheets. where are they now? the latest is ahead. [ loud party sounds ] hi, i'm ensure clear... clear, huh? i'm not juice or fancy water. i've gotine grams of protein. that's three times more than me! [ female announcer ] ensure clear. nine grams protein. zero fat. in blueberry/pomegranate and peach. but i'm still stubbed up. [ male announcer ] truth is, nyquil doesn't unstuff your nose. what? [ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus liquid gels speeds relief to your worst cold symptoms

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adt. always there. jenna: breaking right now, the mother of a former marine scaled in mexico confirming to fox news that her son will be released today. 27-year-old john hammer seen here in this photograph, a veteran of the wars in iraq and afghanistan, has been jailed since august in one of mexico's most notorious prisons. for carrying an antique shotgun like this one on a hunting trip south of the border. steve harrigan is live in florida where the parents of hammer live with the latest. >> reporter: jenna, multiple sources now telling fox news that the 27-year-old former marine will be released today. we've heard that from his mother, his father, his mexican attorney and from the offices of his congresswoman as well as his senator. a mexican court ruled that hammer's constitutional rights were trampled on, that he had no criminal intent to bring that 60-year-old rifle across the border. now, all this started back in

august when ham exercise a friend, another -- hammer and a friend, another former marine after being treated for post traumatic stress syndrome went across the border on an extended surfing vacation. hammer told customs agents on both sides of the border about this rifle and was told to proceed. instead he was arrested by mexican guards, taken to a notorious prison about 15 miles away from the border, and there at times he was chained to his bed, he was also threatened by other inmates. his family received extortion calls as well demanding money. the family has mounted a very public pressure campaign to get him freed enlisting elected officials as well as friends and family, and that seems to have turned the trick. the father left enroute to meet him at the border, he says he's going to drive home with his son. after four months inside a mexican prison, he said his son probably wouldn't be able to handal flight home. jenna: steve, thank you very

much for that report. fox news la teach know.com has been out in front reporting on this story, in fact, a photo that we haveover john hammer in the prison is exclusive to foxnews.com latino. foxnewslatino.com. jon: well, there is a rush on right now to close on real estate deals. how the threat of going over the fiscal cliff is pushing property owners to sell or buy before the new year. and an important health warning about how you shovel snow. it's the first day -- jenna: did you say snuggle snow? jon: i'm not sure what i said. [laughter] jenna: i liked it though, jon. jon: but or there are some health warnings to be aware of as you deal with the white stuff. [ woman ] ring. ring. progresso. i just finished a bowl of your new light chicken pot pie soup and it's so rich and creamy... is it really 100 calories?

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jon: we have new information on a story we've been closely following. two inmates breaking out of jail using bed sheets to scale down a wall 20 stories, then jumping into a cab and just taking off. paris has details from the newsroom. harris? >> reporter: well, the fbi got one of them. joseph jose banks, known as the secondhand bandit, because he wore used clothing, he's due in federal court today for his first appearance since being captured. their jailbreak, as you know, brazen. banks and ken connolly who shared a prison cell used knotted bed sheets and broke autoa window and lowered themselves through that window to scale a high-rise in downtown chicago. police helicopters and k-9 units

focused on the chicago area. they found banks in the city of chicago around 11:30 p.m. last night local time. he was not armed, according to local media. a witness telling reporters he saw banks sitting outside an apartment building talking on a cell phone just moments before officers arrived. we've been covering the huge manhunt for the two convicted bank robbers since they vanished earlier this week, and that search at last check this hour is still ongoing for kenneth connolly. here's the fbi tipline in case you see him or have any information on connolly. 800-225-5324. and, again, as we've been saying all along, if you see this guy, don't approach him. just call that number. by the way, jon, where they picked up banks? a couple of miles away, but where he's in court today, scheduled to be, only two blocks from the prison he broke out of. jon: and i'm sure they will have top security on him. >> reporter: no doubt. jon: harris faulkner, good they

got one of them. let's hope they get the other. >> reporter: absolutely. jon: thanks. jenna: well, right now the threat to have fiscal cliff having a major impact on the housing market. it may not be directly with the fiscal cliff, but just it being the end of the year as well. buyers, sellers and brokers reportedly pushing to sell on properties before the end of the year to beat taxes on real estate that may kick in in january. sam chanen is an adjunct professor at the warden school of business, your specialty being real estate? >> yes. jenna: what's going on in the market today? >> it's not unusual that we'll see an uptick in sales. there are people who for a variety of tax-planning reasons will want to sell their or property whether it's an individual home, commercial before we hit december 31st. it's a little bit more than that this year. as you pointed out, we have the fiscal cliff. there's the potential for a meaningful rise in the capital

gains tax. and for some homeowners, um, those homeowners where they realize fairly senate gains, they -- significant gains, they make a real profit on the sale of their home -- jenna: sure. >> they will face additional tax burden as that capital gains tax goes up. jenna: so there's a rush for them. in general for the markets, though, is this a good thing, to get some closings and to have a lot of activity at the end of the year? does that set us up at all for the year ahead? >> actually, think of it like the cash for clunkers program. if you were thinking about buying a car, then maybe three months from now, four months from now but you knew if you bought it today, you'd be able to take advantage of this tax credit. be the flip side is you now by doing it now, before december 31st, the tax implications, the tax bill that you'll face is potentially lower. so we're seeing that people might accelerate their time frame. they're selling now, but that then means that there will very

likely see a bit of a lull at the top o end of the market come january. jenna: we had mark zandi on with us yesterday because he said something about the year ahead that surprised us and that he felt like it may not be too bad, and he pointed to the housing market as one with of the reasons he had some optimism about 2013. >> yeah, i think six years after this downturn in housing really began, we're starting to see some fairly broad signs that there's a recovery underway. it's a slow recovery, it's a very early-stage recovery, but we're benefiting from modest job creation. at the same time, we've got historically low mortgage costs and a smaller increase in the number of families who are actually able to qualify for those mortgages. you put those things together along with an expectation that prices look like they're ticking up so maybe now is the right time to buy, and that starts to lead to home sales. critically, we need to stay the course on jobs in the economy. jenna: what about the banks though? because they're helping to

provide loans for new builders and all of that, and we know talking to the small business other thans that we have that credit is still very tight. >> i think if you're an individual f be you're a household, if you're looking for a small business loan, credit does remain extremely tight in all of those areas. if you're looking for mortgage financing, then a lot of it has to do with, well, what kinds of mortgages are fannie mae and freddie mac actually acquiring, what are they bringing onto their books and securitizing? so that's a critical thing because that's going to drive what the banks are doing in actually making mortgagings. jenna: so if you were grading the year ahead, what are you going to give it right now, a c, c -? >> probably a b-. jenna: okay, i got that out of you. we'll check back in in the quarter ahead. >> thank you. jenna: thank you very much. nice to see you on set. jon? jon: the white house and the folks on capitol hill seem to be at an impasse in the fiscal cliff negotiations. but our national debt?

it's still climbing. so what does all of this mean for our nation's economy and every single american come january 1st? a live report coming up. plus, major developments right now on capitol hill concerning the benghazi terror attack. we are awaiting a news conference from three republican senators who have been very vocal about the obama administration's handling of the attack that left four americans dead.

jenna: well, some developing news a news conference is wrapping up a few minutes ago in indianapolis regarding that neighborhood explosion that damaged 90 homes. remember this? authorities are calling this officially a case of murder. harris faulkner with the latest from the breaking news desk. >> reporter: jenna, those pictures were just eye-popping and it was deadly that day. two people died in the house next door from the one that blew up. we're learning what authorities suspect happened. just a few hours ago they

arrested three people. one of them, the owner of that original house that blew up, her boyfriend and his brother. they face a long list of charges. on that list, felonious murder and charges related to 33 of the homes now that have to be demolished in that one neighborhood. they say that this woman, who owned the house, and her accomplices, rigged the fireplace inside the home so that it would fill up the house with natural gas. and that the microwave was on a timer and could be triggered from far away. police detectives and forensics units believe, or forensic teams believe they triggered that microwave and that was the beginning of this whole thing. they triggered it to blow up. it ignited with natural gas inside the home of the as you know in the end some 90 houses all together were heavily damaged. as i mentioned they will have to tear 3 of them down. the innocent couple that lived next door was lost in all of this. this news conference had a

lot of detail in it. bottom line the woman did it for insurance money. insurance on the home that originally blew up had been pumped up to well above $300,000 for personal items inside that home just the days and weeks ahead of this explosion. more on this to come. but the marion county prosecutor was very shaken as he was talking about this because it really has had such an impact on that community. back to you. >> yeah, what a story. harris, thank you. >> reporter: sure. jon: and this fox news alert. in less than an hour president obama will step to the microphones in the white house to nominate u.s. senator john kerry to become secretary of state. if confirmed he will replace hillary clinton. and there have been some major developments this week concerning the benghazi terror attack. an independent accountability review board releasing a scathing report citing, quote, systemic failures and leadership and management deficiencies at senior levels in the state

department. but the report avoided questions aimed at secretary of state hillary clinton about failures in libya. so let's talk about the media handling of all of this. our "news watch" panel is with us for today. judith miller, pulitzer-prize-winning investigator reporter and author and fox news contributor. rick grenell is former spokesperson to four u.s. ambassadors to the united nations. welcome to both of you. rick, obviously the two developments are related. the benghazi report and john kerry is now the nominee to be secretary of state. >> we're told right from the beginning that susan rice had nothing to do with benghazi and that the talking points were given to her. it really begs the question, why was she out there then? if she had nothing to do with this, she shouldn't have been the spokesperson. she got tripped up not only because of this, because of her record over the last several years. jon: let's interrupt this conversation to hear senator john mccain of arizona. he has been highly critical of susan rice.

let's hear what he has to say about the benghazi report. >> -- surrounding the tragedy in benghazi. it has been more than three months after the attack that killed four americans in benghazi including ambassador chris stevens. the american people are beginning to get the answers they deserve but there are many more relevant questions surrounding this tragedy that still need to be answered. the report of the state department's accountability review board, or arb, is a serious and credible effort and identifies failures of both officials and institutions in the department. several people have lost their jobs, specific reforms have been identified to insure that the state department does a better job to insure the safety of our fellow americans serving our nation overseas. it's a good start but it's only a start. the tragedy in benghazi raised a lot of other serious questions about our military, our intelligence community, and perhaps most

importantly the administration's so-called light footprint approach to libya and so many other challenges. they are -- arb does not provide answers to these questions because it never asked them. it's essential that the defense department conduct a similar independent and comprehensive accountability effort. on the occasion of the worst terrorist attack in american history after repeated attacks on u.s. and western interests in benghazi why were no military assets or units postured, alert and ready to respond to what should have been a foreseeable contingency? one in which two of the four people who lost their lives were killed in the 7th hour of the attack. this raises larger questions that the defense department must consider. what greater role do we need our military to play in the defense of our diplomats and civilian personnel overseas especially when the broader middle east has never been more unsettled and

dangerous? what is the right military posture for u.s. forces in the region? what do we need them to do? our conversations about defense and the military right now are mostly about budgets and numbers. as important as those are we need to talk more about objectives, strategy and policies since the attack in benghazi could represent a kind of a normal in our dangerous world. the defense department needs to answer these questions. i might add in the defense authorization bill we added authorization for a thousand additional marines to be used to protect our installations, our diplomatic installations overseas. it is essential for our intelligence community to conduct a similar arb-type effort. why did it take more than a week for the eyewitnesses accounts from the u.s. personnel evacuated from benghazi to reach our intelligence analysts? these witnesses could have told them in minutes that

there was no protest at our consulate. a conclusion that in the absence of this information is took our intelligence community nearly two weeks to confirm on its own. congress created the 9/11 commission to fix these kind of problems, the stovepiping and lack of information sharing. perhaps we need another round of reforms. perhaps the most important question that still needs to be answered is this. after the fall of qaddafi, why did the administration not do more to support our libyan friends and partners as al qaeda-affiliated terrorist groups and local mill/has established -- militias established sanctuaries in libya? that remains a fact on the ground. it directly implicates u.s. national security interests and that is the real explanation why four americans lost their lives in benghazi. the pattern of violent extremist activity in eastern libya was

well-documented for the entire year leading up to the attacks of september 11th, 2012 and yet the administration did too little to support our libyan partners who were grateful for america's help in their fight for lib rakes. who elected a pro-american government in july. who sought greater u.s. assistance to treat their war wounded, train their national security forces, secure their borders, bill their democratic institutions and expand the rule of law. libyans do not want al qaeda-affiliated terrorists and militias running amok in large parts of their country but that's the reality we now face. this is the broader failure of the administration's so-called light footprint approach toward libya. and regardless of whom the president nomination to serve in his cabinet we will continue to ask these questions and demand answers and accountability. senator graham. >> thank you.

i would like to concur with senator mccain. i thought the report was very detailed and the recommendations are good and solid in terms of how to better understand the intelligence environment. how to improve security on the ground. and there is much we can learn from this report but here's what we do not, we know nothing really quite frankly about president obama, before, during and after the attack. they're making two movies about his leadership in the bin laden raid and he deserves great credit for making a tough call. sending people into pakistan was a very tough decision to make. it was well-executed and the president deserves great credit for making that call. however, you can not live in a world where the president gets only credit and no scrutiny. what did he do for the seven hours in question? we have photos of him commanding the situation in the bin laden raid. we know very little, if anything about the role he played during the seven hours of the attack.

why did the president himself, as late as 25 september, claim that this attack was related to a hateful video, and why did he continue to suggest that this was a demonstration spawned by a video that load to a riot well beyond when that was plausible? that was no longer a plausible story. did the president know about the decreasing security environment, the deteriorating security environment? was he told about the april and june attacks on the consulate? was he told about the 16 august cable where ambassador stevens says if we're attacked by al qaeda militia and there are 10 groups being identified, we can not defend this place? what did the president know about the security environment in libya before the attack? during the attack what orders did he makend why weren't they carried out and after the attack, why did he push a storyline i think was very misleading?

as to ambassador rice, after this report i hope the american people will understand that the story she told on 16 september was completely out of line with reality on the ground and i believe firmly now more than ever that the story she told on five national television shows was more of a political story than it was inforring the american people. the talking points, who changed the talking points? who took out references to al qaeda? when you look at the report they reject the idea this was anything other than a terrorist attack and al qaeda references are all over the report and they're all over the cables coming out of libya, benghazi, tripoli for months before. so when she said, security at the consulate was substantial, significant and strong, that was the furtherest thing from the truth and the report verifies that. the president said he picked her, she didn't know

anything about benghazi. she had nothing to do with it. if you got a problem, why don't you take it up with me? i thought that was an odd response. i thought it was very strange for the president wanting to pick somebody to tell america about benghazi, had nothing to do with benghazi. if she had known anything about benghazi and looked at any of the intelligence she would have seen a deteriorating security environment just like the people who did the report. if he paid any attention at all, you were have understood why the conclusions were reached in this report. that the security environment was deteriorating months before the attack. on september 11th itself, the last cable, talks about how the militias warned the american government, you're backing jabril. we don't like him. if you continue to support jabril for prime minister we will not be able to provide you reliable security. that is a little-known fact in the last cable of september the 11th, the morning before, the morning before, of the attack.

so as to secretary clinton, to those who suggest that she's dodging her responsibilities because she is not sick i think that is inappropriate and not true. i think secretary clinton has been ill, suffered a concussion and she will testify. but having said that, when her day to testify comes she should testify as a sitting secretary of state. she needs to be asked. as far as i can tell there was no interview of her in preparing this report. she needs to be asked about what she knew about the deteriorating circumstances in benghazi. did she see the 16 august cable. was she informed of rise of al qaeda militia? i think that is only fair and appropriate. finally, as to funding, that is not an issue. miss lamb said funding wasn't a problem. i'm the ranking member of the foreign ops appropriations subcommittee. we made available money in iraq to help anywhere in the

world. in 2012 they took money dedicated for iraq's embassy security, took $20 million and sent spent it in tripoli. we added $33 until to the iraq account with the express understanding you could use it anywhere you wanted to. i do worry about future funding cuts. think that is something we should be aware of when we do our budget negotiations. that we can not leave our people in a bad spot and go too far in funding reductions but on september 11th, 2012, funding with not was not an issue. this was inevitable. the people on the ground were telling us, we're going to get killed if you don't do something differently. they had two options. stop doing their job, or just press on the best they could. if anybody knows chris stevens, the last thing in the world he would do is give up. people questioned whether chris should have been there on 11 september.

given the security environment. if you know chris like i know him, that's the place he had to be, the place where it would make a difference. the bush administration said many things about iraq that were not accurate. john and i pushed back when we thought we needed to. we pushed back here because you can't allow any administration, republican or democrat, to get the glory of good operations and not accept the blame that comes when things go badly. and it is a not that blame i'm trying to assign to a particular person. i'll trying to learn. i'm trying to collect. the bush administration eventually did correct failed policies. if this administration does not change their strategic view of how to engage in the middle east, more benghazies will follow. there was no libyan government to outsource

security to. these militias were unreliable, angry, and anybody who was looking at benghazi libya with a critical eye at all could understand what our people on the ground were telling washington. we were outsourcing security to a nonexistent government. we were pushing the theme of leading from behind to a fault. finally i think it is fair to say that president bush sometimes went in too strong without thinking of the consequences. i think it is fair to say that we're taking a back seat at a time of critical need for the world without thinking about the consequences. mr. president, the strategy you're employing of trying to lead from behind is allowing the middle east to blow up before our eyes. you need to engage based on reality. the reality is that iraq is falling apart. if you don't do something there soon, the same thing that happened in libya will

happen in iraq and other places throughout the world. >> thank you. i want to also echo the comments of my colleagues, senator mccain, senator graham. i appreciated the work done on the accountability review board report. there obviously was substantial work done on this and we need to work on a bipartisan basis to implement the recommendations, many of them, on this report, as soon as we can to make sure that our facilities around the world are secure but let's make sure that we remember some of the most top line findings of this. there was a systemic failure of leadership within the state department that really contributed to what happened on september 11th. that the security at the consulate was grossly inadequate, and that this report thoroughly discredits the administration's narrative almost two weeks the attacks on the consulate in saying that this was the

result of a spontaneous protest in response to a heinous video. and those responses, if you think about what the administration said two weeks later as senator graham said, it wasn't just ambassador rice that talked about that on the sunday tv shows. in fact on september 18th and on september 20th, the president of the united states also connected these attacks to the video despite clear evidence from the beginning, from those who were on the ground, that that was not the case. and so there are still substantial questions that remain. the questions that i also have, that echo the questions of my colleagues are, we have seen, with this report, that already we've had one resignation from the state department. we have three that are on administrative leave. this is all at the undersecretary level and below and so it is incredibly important, one of the issues that this report find is that there's an integration problem within the state department of

communicating and that comes from the top leadership at the state department. and so it is critical that we not only hear --. jon: new hampshire senator kelly ayotte along with her fellow senators, lindsey graham and john mccain in a fairly blistering assessment of the report that came out from the accountability review board on what happened in benghazi. and we have a couple of experts here who can talk about what she is senators had to say just now. judy miller, fox news contribute tore, who has made many, many trips reporting to that part of the world. rick grenell, spokesman for four u.s. ambassadors to the united nations. in particular senator graham suggested, i mean he was asking the question, essentially, what did the president know and when did he know it? there are some real questions to be asked raised by this report, this accountability review board report about what happened in benghazi. >> yeah. we were taking notes. i think actually the headline for me was that secretary clinton may have

not sat for interviews for this report. senator graham was questioning whether or not she actually was interviewed. if that's the case, jon, that's outrageous that we have a sitting secretary of state who said, i take responsibility for this and she wasn't interviewed for a thorough report by ambassador pickering? this is not a good report if that's the case. >> but even beyond that, rick, the amazing thing to me was the questions that senator mcincain was asking about the president's policy, about what he knew and about the policy he has as leading from behind as endangering those people who are serving overseas and taking the risks that ambassador chris stevens did, took. what he is basically saying, mr. president, you can not put your head in the sand and pretend that things are going well. they are not. not in iraq. not in libya. not in yemen. not in somalia where al qaeda is spreading. and we need to look at not just what happened in benghazi but the policies

that underlined it. this is huge indictment of the administration's middle east policy and i think it may have some resonance on the hill. >> it is an indictment of media coverage because the questions they raised are very important questions. i haven't seen a single reporter ask some of these questions. did the president know about previous cables? did he know about previous attacks? was he told about all of this? we don't know because reporters are not asking those questions. cnn, their deputy bureau chief in washington, d.c. is woman named virginia mostly. she is married to tom nides, who is secretary clinton's deputy. yesterday cnn's coverage of tom nides had him quoted saying we can do better. that was their coverage. now, they didn't disclose the fact that tom nides, who sat in for secretary clinton is married to the cnn deputy political bureau chief. that's outrage just. jon: there are so many questions yet to be answered and, well, i could use some cliches and i will try not to do that but clearly this thing is taking on new life

there in washington, d.c. there are questions yet to be answered. we're going to have some of the coverage, some of these questions we hope to answer on "fox news watch" this weekend. the panel and i will be back to talk about the mainstream media's coverage or lack thereof of the benghazi attack. also the looming fiscal cliff and all the big stories of the week and how they were covered that is tomorrow at 2:00 p.m. eastern time. jenna. jenna: we're getting breaking news out of rural pennsylvania, central pennsylvania. we're learning that from the associated press that four people are dead including the suspected gunman. from a prosecutor in the area three state troopers were also injured. no details why gunfire was exchanged in the first place. more breaking information as we get it. hi. i'm henry winkler.

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jenna: an act of a desperate regime approaching collapse. this is backing of some recent predictions. the assad regime will fall to the rebels. they just left syria after spending 10 days in the country. what is your impression? >> i spent 10 days in the see a lebeau. we are seeing the war of attrition on the front lines within the urban areas. not a lot of movement raid the rebels not pushing out. what they have done is a strategy it is very important in the city of aleppo people in

aleppo really respect these of lammas. they don't engage in criminal activity that is what brings them support people on the ground. jenna: interestingly, in the hearts and minds of the general public, we just heard from senator lindsey graham who is really questioning our strategic view of the middle east. we have been talking about whether or not the united states should get involved in syria. the obama administration